By Francis Ngahu
KISII, NOVEMBER 13, 2026 (CISA) – Pope Leo XIV has appointed Rev. Fr Joseph Onyango Oduor, OSA, Coadjutor Bishop of Kisii, making him the first Augustinian to be named a bishop in Kenya and giving the diocese a successor-in-waiting for Bishop Joseph Mairura Okemwa.
The Holy See Press Office announced the appointment on Friday, November 13. Bishop Okemwa announced it locally at a thanksgiving Mass he led at St Charles Lwanga Cathedral, Kisii, where he invited the Bishop-elect to address the congregation.
Fr Oduor, 49, was until now Parish Priest of St Monica Parish in Nyamasaria, in the Archdiocese of Kisumu. No date has been announced for his episcopal ordination. Until then, he is styled Bishop-elect.
“I stand with humility and obedience as I give thanks and praise to God for calling me, through the appointment by Pope Leo XIV, to be part of you and to join His Lordship,” he said.
He said he drew inspiration from the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38). “I totally say yes to the will of God and place myself in the hands of God,” he said.
He thanked the Holy Father for appointing him to the Church of Kisii alongside Bishop Okemwa. “Your Lordship, I promise to work in obedience and communion with the Holy Father and with you, and indeed in collaboration with all the clergy, religious men and women and all the faithful of the diocese,” he said.
The Bishop-elect also thanked Msgr. Luciano Labanca, Chargé d’Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature in Kenya, for “guiding and walking with me” until the day of the announcement. His “profound gratitude” went to the Christians gathered from different parts of the diocese and to his brother priests for their warm welcome.
He thanked his superior, Very Rev. Fr Robert Karanja Ireri, for accompanying him on behalf of the Order of St Augustine, and closed with the doxology from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (3:20-21): “Glory be to him, whose power working in us can infinitely do more than we can ever ask or imagine. Glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen.”
A coadjutor bishop is appointed with the right of succession. He assists the diocesan bishop and, under Canon 409 §1 of the Code of Canon Law, becomes diocesan bishop immediately when the see falls vacant.
Bishop Okemwa, 72, was appointed Bishop of Kisii by Pope St John Paul II on December 19, 1994, and ordained bishop on July 21, 1995.
An Augustinian journey
Fr Oduor belongs to the same religious order as Pope Leo XIV. Born on May 2, 1977, he entered the Order of St Augustine in Kenya in 1998. He studied philosophy at the Consolata Institute of Philosophy and theology at Tangaza University in Nairobi, completed his novitiate in Jos, Nigeria, and earned a Licentiate in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA).
He made his perpetual vows on October 16, 2005, and was ordained a priest on November 4, 2006.
After serving as a parish vicar from 2006 to 2009, he was Parish Priest of Sacred Heart Parish in Baba Dogo, Nairobi, until 2011. From 2012 to 2019 he was Prior and Formator at the Augustinian International House of Formation, the Theologicum, in Nairobi.
He has been a Councillor of the Augustinian Vicariate in Kenya since 2015. In 2020 he became Parish Priest of St Monica, and he served as Dean of Kisumu Deanery from 2021 to 2024. Since 2024 he has been a member of the College of Consultors of the Archdiocese of Kisumu.
A diocese of 66 years
The Diocese of Kisii was erected on May 21, 1960, from territory of the Diocese of Kisumu. Its first bishop, Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga, left on November 15, 1969, to become Coadjutor Archbishop of Nairobi, and later became Kenya’s first cardinal.
Bishop Tiberius Charles Mugendi was appointed to succeed him on the same day and led the diocese until his death on December 17, 1993. Two months earlier, on October 18, 1993, part of Kisii’s territory had been used to erect the Diocese of Homa Bay.
Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Okemwa a year after Bishop Mugendi’s death. Kisii joined the Ecclesiastical Province of Kisumu in 1990; before that it belonged to the Province of Nairobi.
